Mind Heist
by DasKatze
Summary: This is a story of Rusty's early life in Cowboy Junction. This is a prequel to my first fanfic, Somebody to Love. The story is told by Rusty and is rated T for strong language and death. I titled it Mind Heist because it's the song I've been listening to often and it's been bringing up story ideas for Rusty. R&R!
1. Prologue

Let me start you off with this: I ain't your average guy. I don't like sports, I know nothing about technology, I'm not the kind of guy who's desperately looking for love, and I _certainly _am not an attention fag. You see, I live far away from those types of guys. Me? Well, this is what I am: Tough as nails (physically and mentally), apathetic yet just lookin' out for my friends since they're all I got, and just your typical, average cowboy. But let me tell you that I ain't one of them cowboys who's constantly ridin' around on horses with a lasso screamin' "YEEE-HAWW!" to every damn person I see. Those kinds of cowboys live elsewhere. But yeah, I have a pistol handy when I need it, drinkin' and smokin' is always a good pastime for me depending on my mood, so I ain't that different from the types of cowboys you'd think about or see on television. But you know the guys I described earlier? Well you can find a lot of them at the Royal Academy or Candypalooza, but certainly not where I live. Oh yeah, and I don't have a shitload of friends (only 2, believe it or not) and I don't ask for much. But hell, if I met the kind of people I described earlier, none of them would understand me. I wouldn't "fit in". Sad thing is, I have a hard life and only 1 of the 2 of my friends get that. The one friend, who I'll tell you all about later, isn't really "normal", if you catch my drift. I'd say he's pretty fucked up. I wouldn't be surprised if he became a serial killer one of these days who's determined to gain power over the world. But I don't know. I'm guessin' you'll find that out a little later, eh? By the way, the name's Rusty, and this is my story…~


	2. Just Another Day

_~November 20, 2002: __**Age 7**_

"Rusty! Wake up! You need to come help me and my Dad milk the cows!"

Of course. Every single damn day I was woken up by Roxie at the crack of dawn to help her and her Dad get milk for the day. This is how it always was back then. But me, being 18 years old now, I don't need to worry about her family makin' me do labour around her farm. She's 18 now too and her family moved out. Basically she was left to do all of the house and farm work. But anyway, let's get back to my story:

I came out of my little tent that I slept in and rubbed my eyes tiredly. My parents and I slept on the mountaintop in little tents. I had my own, of course, and then my parents shared one. We had nice couches and table and chairs that my grandparents gave us. There were shelves and shelves of books lining the east side of the mountain because my parents loved to read. We made a really nice living space up there! It would've been better if we still had our shed, but some strong winds somehow managed to blow it away a couple years ago. But, damn, I hated waking up so damn early. I never understood why the rest of Roxie's family couldn't get up and do the work instead of it being me. Hell, she had almost her entire family living with her! There was her parents, her older sister, her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and two older cousins…all living in that tiny little house too! I don't know how they did it, but they made it work! I lazily looked up at Roxie, "Roxie, I don't wanna get up now! I ain't full of energy like you every morning. Can I not help this time?"

Roxie shook her head as if she just couldn't believe what just came out of my mouth. "What? No, Rusty! You have to! My Dad said so! The rest of my family is still asleep and _you _have to help! Now let's go!" She grabbed my wrist and sprinted down with me to her ranch. Her Dad was standing there next to the cows, who looked pretty exhausted themselves, and had three buckets in hand.

"Well, good mornin', Rusty!" Mr. Road said pleasantly. I merely gave him a smile and a nod and took the bucket from his hand and went to work on one of their new cows which they named Clarabelle. Roxie and Mr. Road worked on the other two while they simply talked about their itinerary for the day. You know, Roxie and I weren't the only kids on the island. There were two others named Matthew and Ginny. Ginny lived in the jailhouse down by the docks with her Dad, aunt and uncle, and a few of her Dad's co-workers. Everyone in her family that lived there was an officer and her Dad was, obviously, the sheriff. Ginny thought she was gonna be this great sheriff one day. Well, she is a sheriff now, but she ain't a good one. I never really considered her a friend in the least. She was way too weird and outgoing for me. Matthew, on the other hand, lived with his parents down at Gino's house/café. Gino and his twin brother Charlie were only teenagers at the time and their parents were famous pizza chefs. Matthew's parents were really good friends with the Deliciosos so they let them live with 'em. Matthew was a weird kid. I'll leave you at that. You'll find out later why he was such a fuck up.

We were finally done with this whole cow-milking thing and then Roxie and I went over to the Delicioso's café to get breakfast. Luckily, we always got their breakfast for free so we went over there almost every morning for breakfast. Well really, their food was free no matter what but still. It was pretty fucking good. We saw Matthew sitting at a table with his parents eating breakfast. He saw us, smiled, and walked over to us. "Well, hello, my good friends. Lovely morning, isn't it?" See what I mean? This guy was level 999 creepy. Roxie and I always knew there was something wrong with him. Ha, we totally found out when he—woah. Just gonna stop right there. Don't wanna spoil it for ya.

Roxie did a small wave back and just said a simple "good morning" back to him. We sat down at another table and let Mrs. Delicioso put breakfast down in front of us. I remember they always made a mean breakfast pizza. "_Buon appetito!_ Enjoy, you two!" We both thanked her and dug into our food. Gino and Charlie were sitting in front of their tent mumbling in Italian. Obviously stuff we couldn't understand. Cowboys aren't really bi-lingual, ya know? We don't see the need to learn another language for anything or anybody. Roxie and I finally polished off our plates, handed them to Mr. Delicioso, and walked off with Matthew toward the docks. All of our families liked to keep our sailboats over at that one dock. Personally, I never knew why we all had boats. We used them every once in a while, but not that much. We liked to play captain in Matthew's family boat. His boat was by far the biggest and most fun to play in. We jumped in and started role playing captains and sailors until we heard it; that sadly familiar voice.

"HOWDY, PARTNERS! LET ME PLAY WITH CAPTAIN WITH YOU GUYS TOO!"

Ginny. Fuck. No seriously, no one liked her. And just then, we knew this was gonna get rough.

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**Hey guys :) Chapter 1 sucessful~ So this was just a rather short and cute chapter. They're little 7 year olds xD Trust me. It won't be like this the entire story. I gotta make some tragic shit happen at some point. Oh, and they won't be 7 the entire time either. It'll progress, I promise :) But yeah, I thought this was cute 3 R&R people!**


	3. Birthday

Honest to God, Ginny was the last person we wanted to see. Neither of us liked her. Why couldn't she just stay behind and help her Dad with the shitload of varmints they had locked up? "Hey guys! Can I play too?" is what she would ask us every time we were doing something. My answer was always the same: "Buzz off, Ginny. You play too rough." And with that, she would either walk away or not listen and jump all over me. Haha, damn those were the good ol' days. It just seemed like it was so recent, but in reality that was 11 years ago. A lot has changed since then…

_~November 27, 2002_

Well tomorrow was my 8th birthday. I was always pretty excited when I knew I was gonna be turnin' another year older. My friends would have somethin' special planned up for me every year. Usually the Road family would let me take the day off from helpin' them on their farm, the towns blacksmith, Ol' Gabby, would make somethin' for me like a horseshoe or somethin, the Delicioso family would make me whatever I wanted all day, and the Kai family would take me for a ride on their sailboat around the island. All this I got once a year. Oh, but nothing could compare to what my parents would do: of course, they'd let me sleep in and then when I woke up and crawled out of my tent they would be sitting there waiting for me with a huge box sitting in front of them. They'd hug and kiss me, sing to me, and then let me open up my present. Now let me tell you, my parents always got me the _best_ birthday presents ever! I remember on my 5th birthday my Mom made me a blanket (which I still sleep with every night) and my Dad, who actually worked with Ol' Gabby, made me an iron horse. It was the coolest thing too. Sometimes I wished birthdays came more than once a year.

"Greetings, Rusty. I see you're doing very well. Aren't you excited that tomorrow is your birthday?" Matthew said as we were sitting under the tree by the Delicioso's farm. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be? I'll be another year older! That's always somethin' to be excited about."

Matthew nodded in agreement and looked ahead. "You know, my parents think you're a pretty neat kid. Sometimes I'm a little jealous. Why can't I be as neat as you?" I looked at Matthew with a rather skeptical look. This was another time where he just wasn't making any sense. Matthew always scared me when he started conversations like that. "Uh, what are ya talkin' about?"

"Well, it's quite obvious that my parents think you're pretty spot-on. They wish they had a son like you. They don't even care."

Now I started to get really, really creeped out. All I could really do was stare at him. I was speechless. He looked at me, smirked, and shook his head. "Well, I'll be off. I'll leave you alone now." He said as he stood up and walked casually away. Oh but don't worry, he gets creepier. You'll see as time progresses.

_~November 28, 2002: __**Age 8**_

Today was officially my 8th birthday! I was so excited, I could hardly wait to crawl out of my tent to see my parents. I'd say it was about 9:30am or so when I woke up. First thing I did was come out of my tent, look up, and sure enough there were my parents sitting there smiling brightly. My parents were so young and cheerful, not to mention very good-looking. My mother had me when she was about 17 and my father was 18 at the time. Pretty young and reckless, but I guess it was more fun to have such young parents. And around these parts, it was kinda normal.

"Happy birthday, Rusty! Ever year on your birthday you seem to be getting more handsome, you know that?" my Mom said as she gave me a big hug. My Mother always gave the best hugs. She always made me feel better when I was upset. "Thanks, Mom. I love you." She gave me a kiss on the forehead. "I love you too, honey." I turned to my Dad and smiled. He smiled back and patted my head. "Happy 8th birthday, son. Gabby and I made you somethin' special this year. Go on, open your present."

This was it. Moment of truth. I tore the wrapping paper of and took the top off the box. I remember when I first laid eyes on it, I felt like I was gonna explode flower petals or some happy shit. I don't know, I ain't a poet. I was pretty fucking happy though. I picked it up and held it in my hand. It was a metal frame with a family picture of my parents and I that was taken when I was about 6. It was the best present I had ever gotten from them. I grinned at my Dad and gave him a big hug. "Thanks, Dad. I love it. You guys always know what to get me." He patted my back and looked at my Mom who just merely winked at him. Over my Dad's shoulder, I saw Roxie running up the ramp that leads to the top of the mountain.

"Happy birthday, Rusty! Come on! Let's go down and get breakfast!"

I looked at my parents and they both nodded. "Go on. You've got a big day ahead of you. Go have fun," my Dad said as he and I both stood up. I nodded and sprinted down with Roxie to the café. I'd have to say, that was probably the best birthday ever. I did everything I hoped would happen that day. I ate whatever I wanted, the Kai family took me and Matthew for a ride on their boat like I hoped we would do…it was a good day. I know I'll never have another birthday like that again. Not at this stage of the game.

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**Chapter 2 sucessful! Yay! So this one was just basically all about Rusty's 8th birthday. Nothing special. It's getting better, I promise you that. I'm just trying to decide when to add the death part...AND I gotta make Matthew creepier! If any of you read my first fanfic, _Somebody to Love_, you'd know how creepy and insane he was xD But yeah, this is gonna get good. It's not gonna be all cute and shit the whole time. THERE WILL BE ANGST AND SADNESS AND GLOOM! Yesss so anyway, enjoy my second fanfic guys :D**


	4. Something's Up

_~June 3, 2006: __**Age 11**_

So I was getting' older and as I got older things started getting harder. Eventually I was faced with the reality that I was gonna have to start going to high school soon at the Royal Academy. All my life up to age 14 I learned shit at home. My parents loved to read and they had a bunch of educational textbook-things for learning and they made me read from those. Roxie, Matthew, and I would actually read them together to benefit knowledge for the each of us. In about two years I was gonna be shipped off to high school and there was nothing I could do about it. I decided one day after helping my Dad with his blacksmithing stuff, I wandered over to Roxie's house. It just so happens that she was trying to sweep the trails yet again. By the way, did I ever tell you about Roxie's OCD? Probably not. Well, yeah, it's true. She loves cleaning a lot and pretty much expects everything to be spotless and have absolutely no trace of bacteria on it. She's the biggest neat freak I've ever met. She freaks the fuck out if something has a little bit of dust on it. But yeah, anyway I walked up to her and hoped to God I wouldn't scare the crap out of her sweeping.

"Hey, Roxie. I got a question fer ya."

She wiped her forehead and placed the broom against the house. "Howdy there, Rusty. What's up?"

"Well I was just wondering if yer parents were gonna be sendin' ya off to the Royal Academy too? I don't know, I've been givin' it lots o' thought lately and I was kinda hopin' that you were gonna be goin' too. It'd be nice if there was _someone _there that I knew." I managed to say, kicking the dirt beneath my heel. I could tell kicking the dirt around was aggravating Roxie just by the look on her face. She lightly stepped on my foot to make me stop and sighed.

"Yeah, I'm going too. I mean, we really don't have a choice. But let's not worry about that now. Summer's on its way and we don't wanna be cluttering our minds up with our scholastic worries. We've still got a whole year until we're off."

"True." But I was still worried. I'm not really good around other people. Plus, I didn't like the thought that I was gonna have to stay in a dorm all week and then go home on the weekends. I didn't think this was gonna be fun at all.

_~July 10, 2006_

Well today just so happened to be Matthew Kai's 12th birthday. Yee-haw. Roxie and I expected him to be by his parents in the morning when we were all done milking the cows but when we got to the café, he wasn't there. "Mornin' Mr. Kai," I greeted, "Where's Matthew at?"

"I'm not too sure, Rusty. We woke up and we saw him walk off somewhere else. Would you two mind looking for him?" Mr. Kai asked while he tucked in his white dress shirt. Roxie and I nodded and headed off toward Ol' Gabby's place. We walked up to the base of the mountain and around the corner where the creek was. Sure enough, there he was. Sittin' in front of the creek. We thought we heard him talkin' to himself, but we weren't too sure. I took a couple steps closer to listen in and it turns out I was right. He was talkin' up a storm with himself. I couldn't hear everything he was sayin' but it certainly didn't sound good.I swear, Roxie and I thought we heard him say stuff about killing people and "why is Rusty so perfect?" kinds of stuff. It scared us, so we thought we'd put an end to that right there.

"Happy birthday, Matt." I said quietly as not to startle him. He jumped and turned around. "Oh, Rusty! How kind of you to see me on my special day of birth." He stood up and walked toward us. "And you too, Roxie! What a pleasant surprise! I'm very happy to see you both today." Roxie merely nodded. I could always tell she was a bit scared of Matthew. I mean, so was I, but I've never seen her that way around anybody. She gave me that "let's just go now" look and motioned for her to leave if she wanted. She took the initiative and left to go sweep more of the trails. Matthew glanced at her and raised his eyebrows at her as if he kinda wanted her to leave. As much as I hated being with him alone, I couldn't just leave him. It was his birthday for fucks sake.

"Soo, uh, did ya get anythin' for yer birthday yet?" I asked him, fidgeting uncomfortably. "You know, anythin' from yer parents?"

He laughed hard for a few seconds and then said, "Rusty, Rusty, Rusty. My parents _never _get me any presents. Maybe once or twice, but not always. They don't really care too much for me, you see." And somehow I wasn't surprised. If I were his father I'd wouldn't get him anything either! But in a way I still felt kinda bad for him, so I regretfully said I'd spend the day with him. We walked over to Ol' Gabby's place to visit him and my Father. We chatted there for a bit and then walked up to the bridge that leads to the side of the mountain that was good for mining. We just sat there against the mountain wall and talked for a good half hour.

"It was quiet nice of you to spend this day with me. Even my own family doesn't seem to care about me becoming a year older. It saddens me so. You're quite lucky to have such loving parents, Rusty. Not to mention mine love you as well. You seem so perfect in every way. I envy you." He stated. I started feeling uncomfortable, but curious as to why his parents hate him.

"Why do yer parents hate ya? That don't seem to be a very good situation to be in." I asked , turning to face him. He shook his head. "In all honesty, I don't know. They seem to take everything I say the wrong way when I speak to them."

"Well, would ya like me to speak with 'em? Maybe get some things straight so ya can have a better relationship with 'em?"

His eyes widened as if I just completely and utterly offended him. Did I say something wrong? "Oh no no no no, please, Rusty. You don't need to do that. It's my problem."

I stared back at him with me signature look of skeptic. "Nah, it's alright. I'd be more than happy to if-" Matthew slapped his hand onto my shoulder which scared the living shit out of me. He looked infuriated. "I said no, Rusty. It's my problem. Leave it alone." And with that he stood up and left. I remained seated against the hard mountain wall with my eyes wide open. I watched him walk across the bridge, turn down the stairs, and walk casually away back to the café. From then on I knew something was up and it was up to Roxie and I to find out what it was.


	5. Matthew

_~July 11, 2006_

So yeah. I was still pretty shaken up by the fact that Matthew wouldn't let me talk to his parents about their relationship. But later I decided that I'd talk to them privately and make sure he doesn't know. The thing is, I needed to make sure that Matthew had a distraction so I went to Roxie's house to discuss this with her. I approached the white wooden door of the house and knocked lightly. Mrs. Road came to the door and smiled when she first looked at me. "Well, howdy there, Rusty! You know you don't need to knock when you come over! Come on in! Roxie's just cleaning the kitchen."

"Ok, thanks, Mrs. Road." I walked in and saw the entire Road family sitting on couches around the fireplace talking about God only knows what. I turned to the kitchen and saw Roxie wiping down counters and organizing their canned foods. I walked over to her and tapped on her shoulder. She looked back and grinned. "Howdy, Rusty. What's up?"

"Do ya think you can come outside fer a bit? I needa talk to ya about somethin'." She agreed and put her rag down and walked outside with me. We walked past her cow pens and up some stairs to a small cliff that supposedly her cow, Clarabelle, liked to climb up to look at the view. We sat on the edge of the cliff and I told her about what Matthew had said. She was shocked.

"W-well, what are we gonna do about this? We can't just leave this alone! He's too suspicious now!" she exclaimed, waving her arms around frantically. "I'm gonna have to talk to 'em. Thing is, we can't let Matthew see. He'd beat mah ass to next week."

Roxie crossed her arms and gave me a look. "Rusty, please. You are _so _much stronger than that little creep. You'd take him down before he could ever throw a punch! But anyway, what do you mean _we_ can't let him see you talking to his parents?"

I too gave Roxie a look right back. "Yer gonna have to help me. I think yer gonna have to be his distraction. Ya know, take him someplace far away from us." Roxie's eyes widened. I knew it was a bit much to ask since she was afraid of him and all but I had no other choice. Matthew usually walked around everywhere when he was by himself but if you get him in one place to talk he wouldn't move an inch unless you did.

"But, RUSTY! You know I'm afraid of him! Why would you make me do this? _Please _don't make me do this!"

"Roxie, how else am I supposed to get him maintained fer the few minutes I'm gonna be talkin' to his parents? Just make simple conversation with him! He does most of the talkin' anyway! Ya gotta do this, Rox. Fer me?"

That's how ya get her to do what you want her to do. Just throw a little "For me?" in there and she's a sucker for anything! Works every time. "Well, for you I could. Fine. I'll be brave for once. When are we going through with this?"

"Now."

"Oh. Well shit, let's go find him!"

She and I jump off the edge, since we were both too lazy to take the stairs, and ran off to find Matthew. We found him over by the docks staring into the water (possibly talking to himself again) and that's when I motioned for Roxie to go get him. She started to go but then stopped and looked back at me. She ran back over and asked, "Where should I take him?" I told her to go take him to the mining wall on the other side of the mountain where I talked to him yesterday and with that she was off. I watched her as she tapped on his shoulder, he turned around and smiled, and then he got up to face Roxie. I heard her ask to go talk and he bluntly agreed. They began walking towards me (I saw standing by the broken down cover wagon next to Roxie's house) and when they walked past me I saw Roxie wink and Matthew gave a polite "good evening" to me.

I walked over to the café where the Kai parents sat at a table for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Delicioso were making pizzas and Gino and Charlie were over in their tomato farm picking tomatoes for the pizza sauce. I strolled over to Mr. and Mrs. Kai and stopped at their table. "Good evenin', guys. How are ya?"

Mrs. Kai finished chewing her bite of pizza and wiped her mouth. "Hello, Rusty. So nice to see you this evening! We're doing, eh, fine, I suppose. Would you care to eat with us." I took the empty seat on my side of the table and smiled. I knew I was gonna have to start questioning them soon. Mr. Delicioso set a piece of pizza down in front of me and patted my head. I simply smiled at him in thanks and then turned my attention back to the Kai parents.

"So, there was somethin' I wanted to talk to ya about. Somethin' about Matthew." I stated to both of them. Their eyes widened and they nonchalantly kept eating their dinner like they didn't know what I was talking about. From there I knew there was definitely something wrong. "Would it be ok if we could talk about it? Matthew ain't around. I had Roxie keep him busy elsewhere."

They seemed hesitant, but they agreed. Mr. Kai swallowed the last bit of his dinner and looked down at the table. "Well, we really aren't supposed to tell anyone, but I suppose we can trust you. Just as long as Matthew doesn't find out."

"Why else would I have him maintained far away from here?"

"True. Ok we'll tell you. Every night before we go to sleep, we hear our son whispering things to us through our tent. He says things about how he's going to end up murdering us one day and how he thinks we don't care about him. We care about him very much, Rusty, but he threatens to kill us every night."

After a while of Mrs. Kai being silent, she spoke up. "We don't know what to make of it. We aren't sure if he's talking in his sleep or if he really means it! We're just so afraid, and he said if we told anyone we'd be killed right here on the spot."

"Mrs. Kai, I can assure you it ain't sleep talk. I was talkin' to him yesterday and he was complainin' about how you guys don't love him and how you guys wish I were yer son instead. I told him that I'd talk to ya to set things straight but he got extremely angry and told me to say nothin' to ya."

"Oh God, honey! What are we going to do? Our son wants to kill us!" Mrs. Kai cried to her husband. Mr. Kai took her hand lightly and held it in his. "Shannon, it's gonna be alright. We'll think of something." He turned to me. "Don't you say anything, got it?" I nodded. "Good. It's nice to have someone we can trust to talk to about this. Thank you, Rusty. We're gonna go up and talk with your parents no, so you run along."

I nodded again, stood up, and ran off to find Roxie and Matthew. I found them on the other side of the mountain talking to Ol' Gabby. I was so relieved because at first, knowing Matthew, I almost thought he'd leave Roxie and hide somewhere to hear what his parents and I were talking about. Thank God Roxie kept him busy. I walked over to them and tapped on Roxie's shoulder. She looked at me and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" she whispered to me. I patted her back and looked at Matthew. He had just wrapped up his conversation with Gabby and saw me.

"Rusty! Where have you been all this time? I was hoping you could spend some time with Roxie and I. She was so kind to have invited me to engage in conversation as you were away doing whatever it was you were doing. Shall we go catch dinner?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I already had dinner. I just finished a little while ago. You go ahead. I need to talk to Roxie for a minute then we'll be right over."

"Alright, but don't be long now!" He walked off towards the café and I pulled Roxie over to the cow pens to tell her what was up. "So apparently, to put this in the simplest terms, he whispers to his parents through their tent at night that he's gonna kill 'em. That's basically it." Roxie gasped but quickly covered her mouth. I knew she wanted to say something, but she was speechless at the moment so I spoke up again.

"I highly doubt he's gonna kill 'em when we've got all these people around. They'll be ok for now. But we still gotta make sure they're gonna be ok. I'm tellin' ya, Rox, this kid's got a _major _problem." Roxie removed her hand from her mouth. Her face twisted from fear to rage as she screamed, "HE'S CRAZY!"

I squeezed my eyes and waved my hands around. "Shhhh! Not so loud! I know he's crazy, alright? There's nothin' we can do about it."

"He's gonna keep getting more and more insane as he gets older, Rusty. You see why I'm so scared of him _now_?"

I stared at her but then looked out. "Yeah. I see now."


	6. Freakin' High School

_~September 1, 2009: __**Age 14**_

Today was the day that Roxie and I began high school. I could hardly contain my excitement. No really, I wasn't looking forward to this. It was both a good and bad thing that Matthew wasn't gonna be starting high school. On fact, I don't think he ever went to go have any sort of education other than the books that my parents had. But anyway, Roxie and I were waiting at the docks with a bag of luggage full of clothes and necessities that would last us the week until we came home. We were waiting for our parents to come take my family boat to sail us over to the Royal Academy island and I can tell you this, I was nervous as fuck. Why? Because I knew I wasn't gonna fit in with the other guys. I knew I was gonna get my ass beat (if I didn't beat theirs first).

"Aw, don't worry about it, Rusty. We'll do just fine! And hey, we've got each other, right? No need to hang with the other guys if you don't like them! You can come hang with me! Chances are I'm not gonna like the other girls. Ooh, I just hope the dorm room isn't filthy!"

Typical Roxie. Always talkin' about how things might not be clean and the like and then stressin' over it. But her words of comfort had no effect on me. I still didn't wanna go. Just then, I saw our parents walking over to the docks.

"You guys ready to head off?" my Dad asked us. We nodded, tiredly, and jumped into the boat. Our families soon followed behind and jumped in with us. My Dad untied the rope from the dock, opened the sail, and soon enough we were off.

After about 2 hours of sailing, we made it. The first thing Roxie and I saw when we laid eyes on the island were 4 other students, 2 boys and 2 girls, both being hugged and kissed by their families. My Dad sailed into the dock safely and tied the rope around the post of the dock. We got out and stepped onto the island when I heard my Mother. "Wait, Rusty! Give me a hug and a kiss, sweetheart." I put my stuff down and smiled, walking over to my Mother to bid her a farewell for the week. She did as she said and whispered a "good luck. I love you." in my ear and then pushed me off. I waved to my Dad, who waved back and smiled, and then waited for Roxie while she said goodbye to her parents.

I looked around and saw the other kids dispersing from their families and went right to the dorm. I looked back and saw our parents leaving in the boat and Roxie picking her stuff up. "You ready to head to the dorm?" she asked. I took in a deep breath in and out and nodded. I picked up my bags and walked alongside her towards the dorm. It was past the school, to the back of the island, and to the right. There it was. The place I was gonna be livin' in until the weekends was right in front of us. I walked ahead as Roxie followed behind me and I cautiously opened the door. Inside stood a yellow wood-boarded wall and red tile room (which I would guess was the living room) with couches, a television, computers, and other furniture that made the room look like home. Then I saw the kids...one girl with blonde hair pulled up, another girl with brown hair that was in braids and a green and yellow hat, a blonde-haired boy talking on a cell phone, and a red-haired boy with blue sunglasses who looked like he just didn't give a fuck. He looked like the ultimate douche.

"Hey, guys! Come on in!" yelled the blonde-haired girl. "I'm Summer! And this is my friend, Liberty!" she said motioning to herself and then Liberty. I waved and then turned to see Roxie stumbling in with all of her bags. "Oh, jeez! Sorry! Let me help you with those." Summer said, darting towards Roxie to help with her bags. Then I finally looked toward the two guys. The one on the phone hung up his call and smiled at me.

"Hey, I'm Travis!" he said as he shook my hand, "What's your name?"

"Rusty." I said rather bluntly. So far Travis seemed pretty cool. He didn't really look like the douchebag sorta guy that was standing next to him. Travis picked up my bags and carried them into the boy's bedroom. He plopped them onto a bed that was placed against the left side of the room and then walked back out and sat on the couch. The girls, I take it, were getting' settled in their own room. "Come have a seat, Rusty. Let's all get to know each other a bit. We're all gonna be together like his for the next 4 years, so we might as well get used to each other a little right now."

With a small bit of hesitation, I sat down next to Travis and then stared at the douchebag that was still leaning again the wall next to our bedroom doorway. I looked at Travis, nudged him, and then nodded to him. He took the initiative and asked him, "S-so, what's your name?"

"Shut up, chump. You should know who I am. I'm a legend, you know." Fucking fantastic! I know who my new enemy is gonna be. "Uhh, I'm sorry, I've never heard of you." The so-called "legend" smacked his hand against his face and sighed. "Wow. Wow. How sad. Well, since you don't know who I am, I am none other than Chaz McFreely! The one and only king of all things extreme! The Sports Legend, as others call me, and I am at your service, bitches!"

Well then, it looks like we've got ourselves a narcissist! Typical narcissistic attention fag. See what I mean? This is just one of the many places where you'll find theses types of guys. Travis rolled his eyes and looked at me. I looked right back at him and asked, "Should we get to class?" I knew Travis was gonna ask the same thing, but nonetheless he nodded in agreement and we got up to get to the school building. But first and foremost, I needed to check on Roxie. I peeked around the girls doorway and saw them giggling and doing each others hair and talking about—eh, girl stuff, I guess. Whatever that was. Roxie seemed to like Summer and Liberty so I smiled and let them be.

I quickly, then, grabbed Chaz and lead him out to the school building to start class.

Class seemed like it took _forever_! Basically all we did today was get to know each other and the teacher, Ms. Rosalyn. She gave us our uniforms that were obviously supposed to be worn every single fucking day, and we also got our textbooks and shit. Yee-haw. So excited for this. The only new friend I've actually made so far was Travis. I never got to know the two other girls and I hated Chaz. These next 4 years were gonna be fun.

After the day was over, we all made it back to our dorms and got ready for bed. We heard all the girls scream, "Goodnight, everyone!" from their room, but I got a special goodnight from Roxie outside the dorm. And, no, everyone, she did not _kiss _me. What did I tell you earlier? I am certainly _not_ the type of guy who's looking for love! And I would never date Roxie! She's too OCD and her and I have been friends for way too long. All we did was talk about our day and have some privacy away from the others. That's all. Roxie isn't the type to just leave me hanging at the end of the night.

But anyway, I threw on a black t-shirt and baggy old pants my Father gave me and then crawled into bed. I watched Travis and Chaz fight over the television remote for our bedroom for about 15 minutes. Travis wanted the television off and Chaz wanted it on. Stupid arguments, but eventually Travis won and they went to sleep. "Goodnight, chumps." Chaz managed to say over his anger. I breathed in and out and started at the ceiling for a bit while everyone else was asleep. I knew I was gonna have to go through this for the next 4 fucking years. Yippee.

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**'Sup, everyone? Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I was in Canada for 2 weeks with my Dad...but I'm back and I'm gonna finish this story! It still needs a few more chapters xD The next chapter is gonna be awesome! Trust me on this one~ I might be a bit slow on gettin' them up though cuz I'm getting my drivers permit on Tuesday and I wanna start driving sooo bad O_O But more chapters to come! It's gonna be good!**


	7. Gone

_~September 5, 2009_

So Roxie and I came home from our first week of school to find out that Matthew had bolted. Just totally left Cowboy Junction with absolutely no hope of returning. Wait, I don't think I told you guys what happened! Well Mr. and Mrs. Kai moved off of the island either _on_ Matthew's 15th birthday, or a few days after. I can't really remember. But no one knows why they left. Personally, I think it was all because of him threatening to kill them and his parents must have had enough so they moved far away from their son. It turns out Matthew left a couple days ago in a horrible rage and went to go find his parents. We don't think he's coming back either. Not to mention a little birdie told Ginny's Dad that Matthew killed everyone in their new town including his parents by burning the entire village down. Now y'all know just how insane he really was. But at least Roxie and I don't have to put up with him and his creepiness anymore! This was the biggest relief to us in a long time.

_~December 5, 2009: **Age 15**_

So my 15th birthday was exactly one week ago and it was pretty sweet! I won't go through all the details of it, but I'd have to say it was the second best birthday ever! But anyway, today I got to stay home from school cuz my parents were leavin' to go visit my grandparents. I kinda wanted to be home to see my parents leave cuz I knew I wasn't gonna be seein' them for about a week. I would've gone with, but there ain't anythin' to do at their house…

"Alright, Rusty, we'll be gone for exactly one week! You be good now, alright? I love you." My Mother said as she kissed my forehead. "I love you too, Mom. Say hi to grandma and grandpa fer me."

She smiled again and went to put her things in the boat. My Mother was so pretty. She had long, blonde hair, pale skin, she was tall and thin, but she often put on too much makeup that wasn't even needed. She was so young too. People often mistook her as my sister (which I don't have. I'm an only child…) And then there was my Father. My Father seriously looked like a grown-up version of Naruto only without the headband and those whisker-like lines on his cheeks. He was only a year older than my Mom so he was pretty young too. I think we can all say I got my good-looks from my Dad.

"Alright, son, we're off. Don't be a trouble for the others, ya hear? Love ya." My Dad said, patting my head. My Dad always liked to pat my head instead of a hug or kiss. Don't know why, but it never bothered me. "See ya, Dad. Have a safe trip!" And with that, they were gone. I just hoped they'd be ok. I say this cuz there was an immense storm coming.

That evening the rain fell hard! It was a storm like no other! Everyone took shelter either in the Road family's house or at Ginny's family's jailhouse. I just so happened to be with Roxie in her house. Roxie took the day off from school too cuz she didn't wanna go without me. I thought that was nice. And plus I'd have someone to hang out with other than Ginny. I wouldn't have hung out with Ginny anyway cuz she sucks. But just then, speak of the devil, Ginny knocked on the door. Mr. Road got up to answer and opened the door. There stood a sopping wet and freezing-to-death Ginny asking to come inside. Mr. Road held open the door enough for her to squeeze in. But then she looked at me.

"Rusty. Mah Dad needs to see you. It ain't good."

Fuck. Was I in trouble? No…I couldn't have been. I didn't do anything bad! At least I think I didn't. I gulped and stood up. Roxie stood up as well cuz she, obviously, wanted to come with, which Ginny didn't have a problem with. I followed her back to the jailhouse through the raging storm and ran into the building. There we saw all of Ginny's family including her Dad, the sheriff, who was sitting on the counter next to the phone looking really shaken up.

"Y-you wanted to see me, sheriff? Is there a problem? Am I in trouble?" I asked nervously. The sheriff shook his head and pulled up a chair for me. "Nah, ya ain't in trouble. Have a seat, Rusty. There's somethin' I gotta tell ya." I felt my heart pounding as I went to sit down. I looked at Roxie and Ginny. Ginny was holding onto Roxie's arm and her face was laying in Roxie's shoulder. This was obviously not good. I looked at the rest of Ginny's family and some of them were even crying. I felt like _I _wanted to cry too. I turned my attention back towards the sheriff.

"Well, Rusty, I don't know how the hell I'm gonna tell ya this, but I'll start ya off with the fact that yer grandparents just called here a little while ago to tell me that yer parents haven't made it to their home. We're all extremely worried. Once this storm has cleared up and the waters are safe, we're dispatching a search team from another police department that has submarines to look for yer parents. Now I'm not sayin' they're gone _yet but _only the search team will tell us. But fer now, I want ya to stay here fer the rest of the night. Ya know, just in case we get any readings or information on the whereabouts of yer Mother and Father."

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT! I knew my parents wouldn't be safe in this weather? But _no_, my Dad thought they were gonna be ok! All I could hope for was that they were gonna be alive and well. I already had a bad feeling about this.

I'd say it was around 9:30pm when the sheriff woke me up again. The storm had been stopped for about and hour and a half now and the search team was at work since then. I sat up and then saw the others get up too. I looked at the sheriff, eyes filed to the brim with hope that my parents were ok. "So, sheriff? A-are they alright?"

Silence. The sheriff looked down and stared at the ground for a while. Everyone else, including Ginny and Roxie, were starting to tear up. Ginny grabbed hold of Roxie again. Then the sheriff looked up at me. "Rusty…the search team called me. They found yer parents…sunken at the bottom of the ocean. The storm was too rough and their ship crashed into a boulder in the middle of the sea and they drowned. They're gone, Rusty. I'm sorry."

All I could remember was not knowing what to say as tears streamed down my face faster than a waterfall. I stood up and looked at everyone else. Roxie and Ginny were holding each other and in a fit of tears. I turned back to the sheriff. "B-but they…how did…why did they…" I was shushed by Ginny's Mom hugging me tight. Everyone crowded around me to give a comforting embrace, but it didn't help. Hugging and kissing and comforting me wasn't gonna bring my parents back. They're dead. They're gone. And the worst part is that I'll never see them again. "Mom…Dad…no…"

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**All I can say is that writing this chapter made me cry TT^TT I didn't wanna do this to poor Rusty, but it's just the way my mind was making up the story. I'm sorry, Rusty :'(**


	8. Burning the Memories

_~December 5, 2009_

That night, after stumbling back to the mountaintop from a hard night of nearly crying to death, I needed to try my best to get to sleep. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do _ever_. I mean, I was faced with the reality that my parents are dead and I was still expected to go to sleep! Wouldn't you have a hard time with that too? Especially since I was told all this at roughly quarter-to 10pm. But that night I had a dream about them. It wasn't so much a dream as it were a nightmare though. Nonetheless I remembered it as if I just dreamed it last night…

I was standing in the most beautiful wheat field anyone could ever see! I doubt it was a wheat field you could find on earth! Maybe Heaven, but not here! It was evening so there was a nice sunset that turned everything a warm orange colour. The sky had literal flying colours that couldn't be described. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen! By the way, that's as poetic as I can get. I'm only poetic like that when I describe this dream.

Anyway, I looked out and saw a bright light along with more bands of colour stream out. Inside it were 2 figures that were slowly fading in and walking toward me hand-in-hand. Upon closer inspection, I knew exactly who it was.

"_Mom? Dad?"_

They became clear as day and stopped right in their tracks after I spoke up. They stood there about 25 feet away from me and smiled. They let go of each others hands and my Dad walked up a little closer and held out his arms like he wanted me to hug him. My Mother followed close behind afterward. I started to cry so hard…it all felt so real. I charged after my parents at full speed. _"Mom…! Dad…!"_

Then the worst possible thing I could have imagine happened. As I was running they started to fade away quickly. Alarmed, I tried sprinting faster, but it seemed like I wasn't going fast at all. By the time I got nearly 5 feet away from them, they were almost completely faded away. _"No! Please don't leave me! Come back!" _I cried as loud as I could. There was a faint echo between my calls for them to stay. The tears were falling from my eyes so fast now. I'd never cried this much ever. Well, except when I found out about my parents.

By the time I got to where they were once standing, they were completely gone. I looked around, but I was alone. _"MOM! DAD! NO! PLEASE COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME, PLEASE!"_ No amount of calling to them would make them come back. I was totally hit with the reality that I was on my own. _"No…no…NO!" _I screamed as loud as I could until I found myself fading out of the dream and slipping back into reality.

I jerked right up in my tent, breathing heavily and sweating more than ever. I looked down into my lap and then over to the metal picture frame that held our family portrait. I stared at it for a good few minutes while sobbing lightly. I held the picture close to me and squeezed my eyes shut while I sobbed. I then crawled out of my tent and looked at all the furniture we had around. I thought about how my Dad made almost all of it…how my Mom used every piece of it…every single piece of furniture reminded me of them. It was too painful to look at. It had to go.

I took everything out of my tent as quickly as possible. Every single present of mine my parents gave me since I was a baby I absolutely _had_ to keep, so I put it all in a pile next to me. Next thing I did was pull everything into the center of the mountaintop. Couches, bookshelves, the tents, tables, chairs, everything except for my Dad's trunk went in the middle. I wanted to keep the trunk because it had some extremely useful things in there. After everything was piled in a heaping mess, I opened the trunk and took out a little bottle of gas my Dad had to start fires on our campfire. He used to only use a little bit to get it going, but not too much. Then I rummaged through it to find the matches. I doused the pile of stuff in the gas, lit a match, took a few steps back to throw the match in and watched it all ignite.

There was a bit of an explosion that I'm sure woke everyone up, but I was so upset I didn't even give a shit. I stood there and watched it burn and burn and burn. Tears streamed down my face as I watched the memoirs of my parents slowly turn to ash. In a way I didn't want to do this. Not at all. But I knew they would constantly remind me of my parents and upset me. I just couldn't do it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Roxie screamed as she reached the top of the mountain. "Rusty! What the hell happened?" I heard the rest of 'em run up the mountain, but none of 'em said a word. They just watched.

Roxie ran right in front of me and grabbed my shoulders. "Are you ok?" She touched my cheek. "I'm sorry, Rusty. I…I wish I knew. I'm sorry." I fell into yet another fit of tears as my head fell onto her shoulder. Roxie was always such a good friend. I knew how sorry she felt. I knew how bad she wanted to help me, but she just didn't know how. "I'm sorry. We'll get through this together. It'll take a long time, I know, but we'll get through this. I love you, Rusty. You're like my brother. And as a sister to you, I'll be here. Promise."

I raised my head up to look at her and she nodded as she patted my head. Something my Father did. I looked back at everyone else who stood there with a saddened look. I didn't know what to do. I almost felt embarrassed that I woke everyone up at nearly 2:30am with my raging bonfire to destroy the memories of my parents. Trust me, though. About a month later I completely regretted burning my parents stuff. Why the hell would I want to burn things that reminded me of my parents? Sure, I was out of control with sadness, but now I wish I had them back. I don't know. Maybe you'd do it too if you found out tonight that _your_ parents died…


	9. The End

_~December 19, 2009_

Today, after two weeks of being gone, Roxie encouraged me to get back to school. She thought it would be good for me to take my mind off things for a little while and get back to work. I thought it wasn't a bad idea (since I probably had loads of make-up work). We sailed on over together to the Royal Academy that morning and when we got to the dorm, everyone was sitting there like they were waiting for me or something.

"Hey, Rusty," Travis said, walking over to give me a hug, "Roxie told us what happened, bro. You have my sympathy." I wish I could talk, but I couldn't. I didn't really feel like breaking down in front of the others, especially Chaz. Liberty and Summer walked over and each gave me a hug. Then Liberty spoke up, "I know your pain, love. My mum died when I was 10 years old from drowning in the ocean too."

"Lib, it wasn't just his Mom! His Dad died too!" Summer whispered loudly in her ear. It sure didn't make me feel any better. "Summer, stop it! You're making it worse for him!" Liberty cried. They ended up getting into a little argument that lasted for, like, 15 minutes. But then I turned to Chaz. He was just sitting there with his arms folded on the couch acting like a douche again.

Travis looked quite irritated at him. "Chaz, everyone has expressed their sympathies but you. Don't you have something you'd like to say to Rusty?" He leaned back in his chair, looked around, then closed his eyes. "Mmm, I guess. Sorry your parents drowned in the ocean, Rusty. Quite a shame. Just don't keep using the excuse that you're parent-less to get out of doing your work."

That little fuck, I thought. I stormed right over to him, picked him up by the shirt, and looked him straight in the eye. "Look, you little fuckface, if yer gonna be a little bitch about the fact that I don't got mah parents around anymore, I will beat you so hard yer gonna wish ya never fucked with me." I shook him hard. "Ya hear?"

Despite the fact I nearly shook Chaz to death and his glasses were falling off his face, he managed to keep his cool and actually _not_ try to start a fight with me about it. "Heh, 'kay. You wanna be like that? You go right ahead." He broke free from my grip and opened the door, but then looked back. "At least my parents are still alive."

"That's it!" I screamed and I pounced right onto Chaz. He fell backwards out the door and struggled to get back up no matter how hard he tried. "Chaz! You idiot!" I heard Travis yell as he ran outside. He stood there and watched as I threw punch after punch into the douchebag's face. I got up and picked Chaz up by the shirt again and kept kicking him where it hurts until I saw tears. It was actually pretty amusing! After that, I threw him back on the ground and watch him roll around holding his groin and moaning in pain. The girls ran outside shortly after.

"Guys! Stop! Break it up before Ms. Rosa-" Summer was cut off and she looked up in surprise. Ms. Rosalyn was standing in front of us with her arms crossed and I'll say, she didn't look too happy. She looked at Chaz and then to me. I was breathing heavily and my fists were still up while Chaz was bleeding excessively from his nose, holding his groin, breathing heavily, _and _crying in pain at the same time. Me? Well, I didn't have a scratch.

"Uh-oh…" Liberty said, holding onto Roxie's arm. "Gentlemen," Ms. Rosalyn started, "both of you to my office. _Now_." Chaz got up and walked past me, pushing me into Travis. Travis held onto my wrist to restrain me from throwing another punch. "Let it go, man," he said softly, "just let it go. You did well. I've wanted to do that to Chaz ever since school started. Now go on, get to her office before you get into more trouble." He patted my back and I walked away.

Well, needless to say we both ended up getting suspended me for beating the shit out of Chaz and Chaz for his attitude towards my tragedy. Over the years Chaz and I got into more fights which lead to many more suspensions but it was totally worth it. Travis became my best guy friend and might I say he really is the _best_ friend a guy could ask for! We're still friends to this day, actually…

When Roxie turned 18, her family moved out and built a new farm somewhere else. Her family farm now belongs to her. Believe it or not, she was so excited to be running the farm without her family and she asked me if it wanted to be _our _farm. I, of course, said yes. Roxie and I to this day still live together on Cowboy Junction and Liberty, Summer, and Travis actually come over to visit almost every weekend. I'm just happy Roxie found new girl friends to be with instead of Ginny.

Speaking of her, once she turned 18 her family had a newly built police department built elsewhere to so now _she's _the sheriff! Woo, boy. It sure is interesting. She sure loves bein' the sheriff, I'll tell ya that much. And Matthew: well, I've heard some stuff. Stuff like how he slaughtered tons of people in Spookane and has been in the insane asylum since he was 16. I think he just escaped a few weeks ago…

Gino's mom, dad, and brother moved away. His brother, Charlie, started a cake business in another town and his parents moved back to Italy. Ol' Gabby's still here doin' what he does best.

As for me? Well I've been graduated from the Royal Academy for almost two months. Now, I'm just kickin' back and enjoyin' what life brings to me. That's what life is about anyway.

_~July 20, 2012 (Present day): **Age 18**_

Welp, that's my story in a nutshell. A pretty large nutshell, I'd say. But now that you know my story, I'm pretty sure ya understand where I'm comin' from. I've gone through hardship that I'm sure either lots or not so many people have ever gone through. It's sad, I know, but ya get used to it. Get used to it, get over it is what I always say. I'm just happy to be alive and enjoyin' it too.

But for now I'm just sitting at Gino's café smoking a cigarette and thinking about absolutely nothing at all. But I was caught off-guard by a couple of weird lookin' fellas. One girl with really, really spiky black hair and fangs and the other boy with black and red hair and dark purple goth clothes. They just sat down at the table in front of me and the chef gave them water. The guy just turned around and he's lookin' at me.

"Hey, can I bum a smoke?"

_~The end~_


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